In our first sermon at church this year, our Pastor mentioned the word “recalibration” and ever since, I haven’t stopped pondering upon the word. It means resetting or adjusting settings to help stay on course. Many may understand recalibration when flying a plane since pilots are consistently gauging the course to ensure they are not veering off trajectory. At home, many of us may readjust or recalibrate settings on the thermostat in our home… especially those in Colorado as we experienced a magnificent cold front across the Front Range. How does this apply to faith? That's where it stuck out to me. Our pastor shared about recalibrating to stay on course with the Lord’s plan and using references to Jeremiah 29. The Israelites were held in captivity, yet the Lord speaks in verse 5 “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons & daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too many have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek peace and prosperity in the city which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper (Jeremiah 29:5-7).” Amid exile, the Lord is speaking of building houses & settling down, getting married & multiplying. Can you imagine? In the thick of surviving exile, the encouragement is to dig into it & thrive in exile. And our pastor brought up the fact that we may not be in similar exile in Jeremiah 29, however, Peter reminds us that we are “aliens and strangers [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges [those dishonorable desires] that wage war against the soul (1 Peter 2:11). In this world, we are captives, heaven is our home. Our world is not. So how does that reconnect to recalibration? Sometimes our situations, scenarios, and circumstances can veer us off track. And we may even be doing all the right things in the church, ministry, home, and all our relationships. But being 1-degree off course can eventually lead to miles off course. To pilots, being 1 degree off course is detrimental enough to completely change coordinate points. Similarly in walking with the Lord, being 1 degree off course is detrimental enough to cause a mission drift. A mission drift is where we get off course of what the Lord has called us to do. Recalibration is a key to helping us realign with what God has for our lives. Even if our current condition feels like exile where we can’t get out or it is harder than we called for, we must trust in the Lord because he knows the plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11). When we recalibrate to reset our settings to the Lord’s direction, we can continue to build & thrive & plant and multiply no matter what climate we are facing.